At beginning of class while everyone else spouts out all of their injuries to the teacher, I've always been the student that sits quietly with nothing to report. In fact, I used to brag that the only yoga injury I've ever endured was from dropping a wooden block on my toe. (I did have to grow a new toenail after that, but it was pretty mild compared to some of the yoga injuries I've seen.) Unfortunately, I can't brag anymore. This week, my body revolted against me, and I've got to admit, I'm pretty mad at it. Ironically, it wasn't even an injury I got because I failed to practice a pose correctly—it was because I didn't practice at all for almost a week.

I was so busy this week, both at work and with my extra-curricular activities, that my practice took a backseat. I guess it's because without yoga I didn't have a way to work through my body's tension, but yesterday I started to have Sacroilliac Joint (that's the joint where the hip and the sacrum meet) pain. Combine that with a general discomfort all over my body from being tense, and you get a grouchy, sore, deflated yoga teacher.

Despite my misery, I'm trying to see my new challenge as an opportunity for growth.

If you've been reading this blog, you might remember that during my teacher training I was freaked out about having to address people's individual injuries. I'm confident that after working with my own teachers to coddle my poor SI joint—which I now know is out of whack because of a tight Psoas muscle—I'll at least learn what to do if one of my students has the same problem. And, yes, I've also learned my lesson about letting my busy life take priority over my practice. I think that will be the theme for the next class I teach.

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 11:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

It's amazing how much yoga changes your life. It's also amazing how difficult it is to explain to people exactly how it changes your life. It's one of those things so complex and so deep that the more you explain to people the more ridiculous it sounds—until they experience it for themselves.

As a teacher, it's my duty to help my students really begin to understand all those subtleties that make yoga such a powerful practice. The trouble is, I'm not sure I understand that yet.

I know that it is, because I feel it. But that's about as far as I can get. So when people ask me outside of class (non-yoga friends or family) I find myself saying thing like. "It just does, OK?"

One of the things that makes a yoga class special for me is the teacher's ability to introduce just a little, bite-sized morsel of yogic wisdom and arrange the asana around that theme. This makes the words more powerful because I can actually feel them physically, too. Unfortunately when I try to do mimic my teachers in order to give my students that experience, I always seem to fall flat.

I'm torn between giving up until I am a more skilled communicator, or continuing to try despite one painfully obvious failure after another. Should I risk ruining my students experience so I get more practice? There's only one thing I'm certain about: The more I go to classes with amazing teachers, the better my chances are of becoming an amazing teacher someday.

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 07:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Since I've been teaching regularly, I've learned a lot of new things. I'm starting to develop my own teaching voice and style. I'm learning how to be more precise with my language ("Lengthen you spine and stretch the crown of your head toward the ceiling"—good use of words. "Lengthen your spine, you know, or whatever"—not so good.) More than anything, I've racked my brain trying to locate new students—the one thing that hasn't come easily at all.

But I think I learned my most valuable lesson last night through an email from my one regular student, a 13-year-old who has come to my class every week for the last month. That is, except for last week.

When no one showed for my class last week, I was devastated. I kept thinking about all the things I could've done to make my one, loyal student decide not to come back to my class.

So when I checked my email last night I was thrilled to see one in my Inbox with the subject "Teen Yoga." I was less than thrilled to realize the thing I had done wrong was neglect to unlock the outside door to the studio so my student could actually get in . . . I just hope I didn't leave any other potential students out on the street!

No one ever said that growing a yoga following would be easy. But, I have a feeling class will go a bit better tonight when I actually let my students into the building.

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 07:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)